Category Archives: Modern Visual Culture

January 15, 2007

Anime Composers

By omo

I don’t know why I write about this; perhaps because Anime News Network had that casual poll, or maybe I read a few blogs that talked about it. Perhaps it’s just that I’ve hit a dry spell and I always have a lot to say when the topic rolls to anime music. But perhaps more than usual what I have to say is a lot, and disproportionately a lot of that is baseless, subjective observations, unschooled in the normative language of the relevant arts. It doesn’t stop me.

I think everyone has to make some kind of decision, conscious or not, to make music a part of their lives. It’s not that you become a fan or anything, but much like drinking tea in the afternoon or taking a nap, it’s just something that has long been with human beings for a long time.

Let’s start with Joe. Joe Hisaishi is one of Japan’s most celebrated composers, not so much because of his Studio Ghibli works, but his soundtracks for live action films. It also helped that Beat Takeshi is one of those very liberated film types? Nonetheless, I enjoy his work in a very casual capacity. I think my favorite theme from him is Summer, from Kikujiro. I think Laputa‘s main theme (track 2 on the OST, or this image album) comes next, and I especially like this re-arranged version.

Friends and I call him by an endearing term, “Hesushi.” To mock yet another friend who’s a Hesushi fanatic, of course.

I think the first soundtrack musician in anime that I endorsed with money is Hayato Matsuo. I bet most of you have never heard of him, and his anime soundtrack career is a long but spotty one. I still really like some of his works, like Magic Knight Rayearth and Rescue Wings, but it’s fairly casual involvement here too.

One more before Yoko Kanno…I think Toshihiko Sahashi is the second person I gave money to as an anime soundtrack person. The instrumentals in Rayearth OAV was dark and dreary, but alone on disc it sounded actually thoughtful and it flowed well, and that’s what I bought. I think because he actually have a long list of shows that he wrote for–Tsukikage Ran, Smash Hit, Simoun, Gundam Seed, Gunslinger Girls and Full Metal Panic are just a few–I saw his name pop up here and there. It’s fresh in the mind. He kept up, too, with a lot of good stuff.

But of course, there’s always Yoko Kanno. I think it was love at first (few) listen; somewhere between Macross Plus and Escaflowne I was sold for good. But somehow I never figured out what was so great about Bebop’s soundtrack, aside from showing her diversity. I thought Macross Plus was already pretty darn good, even, at showing diversity. Yet nonetheless I bought a ton of Cowboy Bebop crap. It was the thing to do back then. I think I even got that one DVD with Seatbelts live. They put on a good show.

But we all know about Yoko Kanno, and Yuki Kajiura as well. I think I took a liking to her once I realized I was playing Aquarian Age TV OST over and over again, yet somehow this was before she got huge from doing .hack and what not. I think at some point I listened to her Shin KOR soundtrack, and found that while unremarkable, very solid and charming.

I think however Kajiura has that whole pop-synth aspect to her music which made it very enjoyable. To me the two YKs are most distinct between repeated listenings. I think I still can stand .hack OSTs and Aquarian Age OST repeatedly today, but OTOH I run through all of Kanno without any irritation. I’m not sure if that says anything objective… Maybe that is why I spend more money on Kanno?

That and Kajiura’s stuff is domestically available!

I think if you look at my collection you’ll also realize I’m somewhat a big Taku Iwasaki person. It’s actually not so true. I do enjoy his works but I’m fairly casual about it. Although, I think I like his Witch Hunter Robin works the best. The second OST is oozing with goodness… Any of you Oban Star Racer fans enjoy the music?

At any rate, I think I can continue on for some time, so I’m going to call it for now. People like Kunihiko Ryo deserves more than a terse blurb at the end of a random anime blog, but I hope at the least that gets you curious. I remember seeing him playing the piano during a demo reel for Emma @ AX2005. That was sweet. Studio Pierrot retained him for the project because they love his music so?

6 comments | posted in Modern Visual Culture, Popular Culture, Seiyuu, Idol, Pop

January 11, 2007

Welcoming 2007 with Love, in Pieces

By omo

No, this is not a Hidamari Sketch post, but it’s partly about that.

What’s heartfelt about Hidamari Sketch and its companion & competitor Manabi Straight is the honest appeal to something much more simple. No longer are we so concerned and focused on superficial but simply on what happens. Granted, we’re served up the same stuff, but it’s a zany one-two knockout combo. While still the jury is out on both of them and if these carry long-term sustainability, I feel they’ve gotten to the stage where finally they realize how to push the puni/moe concept.

Confession: I’ve been watching Mushishi lately, trying to catch up. It started in 2005, so I’ve had a long time to do that. It’s a good way to bring in the new year, especially since some of the episodes are very seasonal :)

And no one told me it has one of the best lolitwincest episode ever! It’s very funny and touching at the same time. If it had some irony at the end it’d be almost O Henry-like. Sigh, that would be all that took to get me watching on the get go, once I knew what kind of thing Mushishi is.

PS. Watch Catblue Dynamite if you get a chance!

Leave a comment | posted in Hidamari Sketch, Manabi Straight, Modern Visual Culture, Mushishi

January 10, 2007

Meta-Talk: My Little Social Science Experiment in Picking the Best Anime Character

By omo

When people say “harem” in this context–our context–they have this preconception in their mind. I presume if I said “Megatokyo” a different set of preconceptions would pop up in their minds… Perhaps my love for Nayuki was the fatal flaw in all of that, as years spent modding a LOL internet forum can do to you…

Alas, I am not writing from my grave (yet), so I decided to put my Saimoe 2006 thoughts into practice. It’s really just an somewhat-annual competition me and a couple hundred other people do, even if maybe 20-30% of us actually contribute in vigor. Yep, we’re doing an anime character competition. You can read about it in this thread.

Vigor is really what makes it the best, that said. It’s a lot of hard work. Even so, I think the hardest part is to “trust” someone you don’t know. I think overall my problem was still one of trust. It isn’t that I distrust anyone, but I just don’t know if things will work out like how I want it, if other people would “behave” in the way I think they should, and even if the way I think they should behave is really the way to go. I love giving people the liberty to make it ‘better’ but I’m not sure what I think is ‘better’ is what they think is ‘better,’ and so forth.

For one, the real problem is trying to be complicated without a concise goal. What am I trying to achieve? What are they trying to achieve? I think even in an unhappy, constrained context (Saimoe 2006 is such an example), people can be happy as long as they can do what they want with the characters that they love.

And so I think this will work, because any nomination system where people can ultimately nominate characters they love will work.

And after thinking about it, a forum community is still an absolute necessity for something like this to work. You need some kind of persistence, yet coupled with a fast turn-around time. A blog community could work, but it means bloggers have to “get into it.” I don’t know about you, but I think I’m too whimsical about the use of my own soapbox to be too serious about it. In other words, it’s not centralized enough for my liking. It made sense, too, because 2ch is very much a forum community at its heart.

But hey. It could work. Maybe give it another year we could have a real English-language Saimoe.

5 comments | posted in Blogging, Modern Visual Culture

January 8, 2007

Rescue Angel

By omo

So Frothing Frost Fansubbers (I :wub: them) released a “fansub” which is kind of a feasibility/pitch video that came omake on one of the Rescue Wings DVD releases.

I thought to myself after watching it, “Man, ONLY IF.” Granted if Rescue Wings was about a woman pilot making in a male-dominated field of military aviation it would’ve come across as cliché, at least a little. Somehow I am glad the show still went on as we know it, but it would have been a lot more fun, and just maybe take off that “this is a paid commercial by the Japanese SDF recruitment department” edge a little.

Heck, it would have been the most countercultural and un-Mamiko role Mamiko could’ve played!

Or not.

5 comments | posted in Modern Visual Culture, Yomigaeru Sora Rescue Wings

January 6, 2007

All Hail The Queen of Upskirt Loli: Yuuma

By omo

Two-thousand and six was only a few days ago and I’m already regretting not making a bigger splash about Renkin 3-kyuu Magical Pokaan as something that everyone should watch.

The problem here is pretty simple. To illustrate it let’s go way back. As many of you may know, Full Metal Panic Fumoffu is possibly one of the most popular Kyoto Animation works ever. Forget about the SOS-Dan; this is really the show that made or broke the studio, and I think most of us would agree that this is a masterful comedy that is true to the source. Yet when people talk about the best anime ever they all just say the same old tired things, and no one would ever say Fumoffu as their favorite, or maybe even the top 3.

There’s just no respect for the sketch comedy format. Seriously. It is as if the average anime fan has no sense of humor or something.

Well…not that I want to test that thesis, but for real, Magical Pokaan is the kind of show that makes me want to laugh and proclaim that this is the best anime of the year…until I realize just how naughty this thing is, and quickly shut my mouth.

Indeed, Magical Pokaan mixes the most innocent cute fodder with the most sinister gutter thinking in a tense package of gothloli-loli and LOLOLOLOLOLy. It hurts to watch because some of its gags are just so funny, and it hurts to watch it because it’s so wrong. It treasures the archetypes and pandering, yet at the same time it uses idealism as a laser and asks, “Do you expect me to talk?”

Pachira then would hold up a sign that says “No Mister Bond, I expect you to GIVE ME BLOOD.”

Here’s one to the best gag anime that I’ve seen in recent years. Hopefully it will be well matched in 2007.

Leave a comment | posted in Magipoka, Modern Visual Culture